Tim Cook Has a Love Song for China

Tim Cook’s China-wooing spree is continuing after the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief executive said the country was on its way to becoming the iPhone maker’s biggest market. Cook told government news agency Xinhua that he expected China to overtake the United States as its biggest market soon, though he gave no timeline.

“China is currently our second largest market. I believe it will become our first. I believe strongly that it will,” Cook reportedly told Xinhua.

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In the quarter ending September, Apple reported China sales of $5.7 billion, which accounted for 16 percent of the company’s global total. The iPhone maker, though, was only the sixth-largest smartphone vendor in the country in the quarter with its 6.9 percent share. Samsung (SSNLF.PK), the largest, had a 16.7 percent share of the market and was followed by Lenovo at 14.8 percent. Cook said Apple intended to start “many more” outlets in China over the next several years. The company has a total of 11 stores in mainland China and Hong Kong.